Michael Landy: Credit Card Destroying Machine

Our tutors used to tell us that the best work at an exhibition isn’t necessarily the interactive crowd-pleaser that everyone remembers, but at Frieze Art Fair last night I think it is safe to say that one man quite literally smashed that theory into pieces – the mercurial Michael Landy and his Credit Card Destroying Machine…

Situated in the Thomas Dane Gallery (F17), Landy’s 12 ft, Jean Tinguely-inspired contraption whirrs and rumbles in front of a crowd itching to find out what on earth’s going on. They step forward one-by-one and select a felt-tip colour (red, blue, green or black) and then watch as a woman at the machine attaches the pens to a page of a sketchbook. As her foot touches a button on the floor, the machine whirrs into life, cogs roll, scissors snip, saws turn and cuddly toys wobble, producing a spirograph-like drawing.

But before taking their custom-made artwork, they must hand over their credit card, which is dropped unceremoniously into a fluoro wood chipper, to be obliterated and spat out into a hundred pieces below. Throughout this procedure, Landy stands anonymously in the queue of people listening to their reactions and inner battles with whether or not they should – or can – be separated with such finality from their credit cards.

Landy’s own homage to Jean Tinguely’s Homage to New York stole the show, and has left hundreds of people – including myself- unexpectedly leaving the fair down a credit card, up a piece of legitimate artwork and wondering excitedly what he’ll do next.

Danish-born artist Katja Angeli creates poised collages of simplicity and wonderment. Now settled in London after studying at both University of the Arts London and Royal College of Art, Katja’s subtle artworks have gained her a selection for Bloomberg New Contemporaries, as well as being awarded the prestigious Clifford Chance Purchase Prize earlier this year.

Artist Matthew F Fisher demonstrates a fondness for all things sea-based in his latest series of paintings, where he depicts waves, slippery rocks and seagulls in vivid pastel hues and mesmerising blues. Matthew has painted waves and the ocean in the past but this new set of works feel richer and more detailed in their creation.

“I try to make work that is unconventional, which can be difficult,” explains Memphis-based artist Alex Paulus. With his series of textural, acrylic paintings, Alex depicts his own world through a mix of miniature people in giant landscapes and obscure, comical portraits. “I like to consciously break the rules, but I’m pretty addicted to symmetry, so it’s hard not to have that show up in the pieces,” he says. “I also like to include humour in the work and the titles. I feel like art that is humorous and meaningful sticks with me longer.”

Sparrow Come Back Home is a show opening tonight (Tuesday 6 December) at the ICA by artists Carmel Buckley and Mark Harris. The exhibition takes its title from a 1962 album by calypso singer Mighty Sparrow, who West Indians cite as one of the most “important calypsonians of the late 20th Century”. His entire body of work has been collected together with almost 200 LPs and 12-inch singles from different Caribbean islands and big cities like New York, Toronto and London being gathered together.

Bristol-based fine artist Alfie Kungu graduated from UWE this year with a BA in fine art. He’s already been made one of this year’s New Contemporaries’ artists, had three group shows this year — all in Bristol — and now he’s got his sights set on the capital, where later this month he’ll be exhibiting alongside Joe Clarke and Hetty Douglas.

Stevie Dix is a Belgium-born artist whose education and home life have always been creatively fuelled. “My mum’s a sculptor and painter, my dad is a musician and cartoonist; my siblings and I have always been painting and drawing and playing music.” In her teenage years Stevie attended an artistically focused high school, “a type of schooling in Belgium where you can choose all art subjects and very little else”.